Dear friends,
Now that February is here, the vestry,
staff, and I are busy with the important task of evaluating our first year of
ministry together. At our retreat on February
10, the vestry and I conducted a Mutual Ministry Review; and I am in the midst
of holding individual performance appraisals with our parish staff. Those of us who work at St. Andrew’s have a
covenant with one another, an agreement to abide by fourteen practices to
ensure that our interactions with one another are healthy, holy, and
life-giving—for us and for the church as a whole. Preparing for staff appraisals has reminded
me anew of how very blessed we are by the ministry and presence of each member
of our amazing team: Lorna Williams,
Kathy Gray, Brad Norris, Rachel Roby, Matthew Williamson, Bill Boyer, and Bill Wilds.
Lent is a season for introspection, an
opportunity to look anew at the patterns and relationships in our lives and to
re-commit to engaging in healthy, holy, and life-giving relationships. I invite you to spend some time reflecting on
the staff covenant (see below). Please
join me in giving thanks for our gifted, dedicated staff team; and please join
me also in considering how each of us might adapt these practices into our own
relationships—for the sake of the Church, and for the sake of the One who calls
us to be church.
Blessings,
Anne
St. Andrew’s Staff Covenant
We,
the staff of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Newport News, VA, as an expression
of our commitment to God and God’s mission in the world, make the following
covenantal promises and commitments to each other.
1. We will value our ministry of leadership to
our congregation as a team and offer our primary relational loyalty to that
team.
2. We will express criticism and negative
feelings first to the person, not to others.
3. We will refuse to talk with a complainer
until that person addresses the person she or he is complaining about.
4. We will maintain confidentiality in staff
conversations and meetings.
5. We will explain clearly to people who bring
staff complaints that we will be sharing the conversation with the staff.
6. We commit to being gracious towards one
another about our personality differences in order to support strengths and to
balance weaknesses.
7. We will lay our cards on the table and openly
discuss our personal hopes plans, dreams, and agendas relating to proposals
being made.
8. We accept the fact that disagreements are
expected and are to take place behind closed staff doors; in public we present
ourselves as a team.
9. We will not participate in factional power
plays within the parish and will disclose any such invitations received
immediately to the entire staff.
10. We will serve as “acolytes” to other staff in
their ministry endeavors.
11. We will make amends to the staff person(s) we
wrong when we break one of these promises, and we will forgive those who make
amends.
12. We will remind each other of these promises
when we observe another staff person breaking one of them.
13. We invite parishioners to join us in these
behaviors.
14. We will
ask God to write these covenants upon our hearts. “I will put my law in their minds and write
it on their hearts. I will be their God
and they will be my people.” -- Jeremiah 31:33
